MAKC response to COVID-19: The MAKC recognizes the issues regarding COVID-19 and any impacts it may have on caves, caving, cavers, and bats. Masks, gloves, social distancing, and CDC, state, county, and local guidelines are encouraged as much as possible. Any travel restrictions are to be followed, as are the desires of landowners. Where caving […]
Continue Reading
Hall Cave Management Plan Introduction The Mid-Atlantic Karst Conservancy (MAKC), a non-profit organization incorporated in the state of Pennsylvania purchased Hall Cave and 9.475 acres of classic Pennsylvania karst for the purposes of creating a preserve. Hall Cave has been surveyed to a depth of 80 feet and a length of 380 feet and has […]
Continue Reading
This past winter, as we do every year, MAKC members do a bat count in Hall Cave, our first preserve. The first time the cave was counted for bats was in 1985, by the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Census records show the PGC counted the bats again in 2000. Those totals were 35 and 143, respectively. […]
Continue Reading
Mike Schirato and Kaleb Hammond performed a bat count at the MAKC’s Hall Cave Preseve. Upon arrival we cleaned up some limbs along the access road up to the cave. Overall things looked good. There is some unstable rock at the cave entrance and dirt eroding into the entrance is slowly starting to choke off […]
Continue Reading
The Mid-Atlantic Karst Conservancy (MAKC) regrets to announce that the hibernating bats at its Hall Cave Preserve in Huntingdon County have become the latest population to be impacted by White Nose Syndrome (WNS). White Nose Syndrome is a fungus first noted in 2006 in upstate New York, and has been associated with the deaths of […]
Continue Reading
Once our MAKC bat counting crew discovered White Nose Syndrome in Hall Cave, the conservancy immediately contacted Greg Turner of the Pennsylvania Game Commission to document a new site and a new county for WNS. Within four days Greg and researchers from Bucknell University returned with Kerry Speelman and Mike Kern to document and verify […]
Continue Reading
Fund raising for our Hall Cave Preserve slowed a bit since our initial efforts after acquiring the cave in October of 1998. Donations kept trickling in, but not at the enthusiastic pace at the outset of the acquisition. Near the end of the summer, MAKC member Bruce Dunlavy steered a grant application our way from […]
Continue Reading
MISSION The Mid-Atlantic Karst Conservancy was established by Western Pennsylvania cavers in 1997 for the following purposes: • Preserving, ensuring access to, acquiring, and managing caves and karst areas for conservation, scientific study, and recreational caving. • Education of landowners, cavers, and the general public in the importance of caves and karst resources and ways […]
Continue Reading
The Hall Cave Preserve, located in Huntingdon County, was the first preserve of the MAKC. Located on 9.45 acres of karst land, previous owners Bill and Martha Anderson wanted to ensure that the property was preserved. Bill loved the cave and cavers, letting them change clothes in his garage, playing the harmonica, and chatting about […]
Continue Reading
